Encore: Harold Shipman, Part II: The Original Doctor Death

Killer Psyche

Wondery | Treefort Media

True Crime, Exhibit C

4.6 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second half of this two-parter, former FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong digs into the case of Harold Frederick Shipman: The Original Dr. Death. A prominent doctor in the UK during the late 1990s, Dr. Shipman murdered at least 230 of his patients, mostly elderly women. Candice examines the factors that could have made a man that was sworn to do no harm, take so many lives.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Killer Psychey fans, curious what makes a killer tip?
0:04.2	Wondery Plus gets you early access, exclusive episodes with even deeper dives, and zero ads.
0:11.9	Start your free trial of Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:19.0	A listener note, this episode contains adult content and is not suitable for everyone.
0:25.6	Please be advised.
0:28.2	This is the second part of our two episodes on Harold Shipman.
0:33.3	So if you have not listened to last week's episode, please do that first.
0:46.2	Manchester taxi driver John Shaw had made friends with a good number of his regular clientele,
0:54.0	which is why, when 21 of his regular clientele, which is why when 21 of his customers
0:57.1	died suddenly within a three-year period, he became concerned. Although these clients, who were
1:07.2	all women, were not young, they were all in good health.
1:12.7	The only connection he could find was that they all shared the same doctor.
1:19.9	Harold Frederick Shipman.
1:24.5	The driver did not take his suspicions to the medical board because he, quote, had no confidence they would investigate.
1:34.4	He also did not go to the police because he feared they would simply dismiss him.
1:41.4	And when John expressed his concerns to his wife, she advised him not to say anything.
1:48.6	Why? Because the doctor was well respected in the community, and she did not want her husband to get
1:55.7	sued for slander. But John should have trusted his gut. By 1995, the year John began to feel that
2:06.9	something strange was going on, Shipman had killed 28 people with poison, bringing the number of
2:15.0	murders he had committed so far to 127.
2:20.6	And by the time he was arrested on October 5th, 1998,
2:26.4	the good doctor was suspected of murdering 132 more.
	...

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